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I haven’t dropped off the face of the planet…

…although sometimes it feels as if I have. Somehow I manage to write these “hey, guys, I’m still alive” posts more often than I’d like. Intermittent access to the internet and still wading through the day-to-day slog of a “normal” job sucks all of my time away. In this case, I had been taking Master’s-level courses in addition to the dayjob, so when it came down to “do I blog or do I dedicate time to the books/stories?” the books and stories won every time. And I am still taking courses. Well, okay, just one course this “semester.” I needed a little more time to get back into the thick of things and start marketing my work (which I suck at, completely. I’ve never been very good at selling myself. Is it because I am humble? You tell me! Hah!).

Other things which have been… interesting. I entered a story entitled “Waking Day” in a local contest, but didn’t make the cut. I missed out on the prize money, but to me that was only secondary. What I really wanted was the marketing (didn’t I already say how much I sucked at that?). Anyway, the upside is that now they don’t have exclusive one-time publishing rights to the story, so I am going to throw a couple of stories together, all in the same theme, and publish that. The working title is “The Dystopian Sextet” because there’s going to be (drumroll) six flash-length stories in it.

I’ve also got to be very careful to stay on track with those and with my novel, The Opal Necklace, because I took a night out to watch a debate at my alma mater between Thomas Jefferson and Thomas Paine (yes, you read that right)*. The problem with this? I really want to add a historical fiction story into my schedule, focusing on Colonial America just before and during the American Revolution. I am blessed with living in an geographic area that possesses more than a little significance during this time of American history, so the temptation transcends the flirtatious and heads right into full-blown seduction mode. If I am good with my studies and sticking to my main writing schedule, I let myself go play in that world for awhile, drumming up ideas to use later.

Bottom line, I am not dead yet, and continue in my endeavors to bring entertaining, if not earth-shatteringly literary, stories.

*These two were, sadly, not warped into the present from the Eighteenth Century by the marvels of chronological/temporal sciences to share their wisdom and experiences with us. They were, however, interpreted by excellently entertaining and informative actors from the American Historical Theatre, hosted by my college. Fantastic job, guys (and their period clothing was to die for! Did I mention I am a costume/sewing junkie? I love period clothing and elaborate movie costumes/wardrobes).

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T. R. Neff

Victoria “Torrie” R. Neff still pretends to be something other than a writer. She’s been (among many things) a paper girl, an aircraft mechanic in the U. S. Navy, a tattoo artist, an IT Tech and an Administrative Assistant, frequently wearing several “hats” at once. Currently, she resides in the Susquehanna Valley of Pennsylvania but may be spotted as far south as Virginia Beach, VA.
Just pray you don’t run into her in the wild; she may attack you with deadly stories that branch into endless, entangling tangents.
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